StandWithUs commends New York University’s (NYU) administration for its unwavering rejection of an attempted academic boycott of Israel by the Graduate Student Organizing Committee (GSOC), the union representing NYU graduate students. GSOC recently demanded that NYU remove Tel Aviv from a list of study abroad program locations available to its students during the coronavirus pandemic. As the NYU administration asserted in its excellent statement, calls for academic boycotts of Israel are antithetical to the basic tenets of academic freedom and the free exchange of ideas central to a university education, and they will be rejected accordingly.
“Anti-Jewish bigotry and discrimination are at the core of the BDS movement,” said Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs. “It is unfortunately unsurprising to see anti-Israel activists exploit any platform they can to promote hate. We applaud NYU for taking a strong and unequivocal stance for academic freedom and against antisemitism on their campus."
